How theatre enables empowerment

theatre is used as a tool to make a change by practitioners in kerala

As the contemporary theatre scene in Kerala continues to evolve, learn and adapt, applied theatre is increasingly being used as a tool to speak for a community or for educational and therapeutic purposes. Theatre persons and collectives have been working with inmates of shelter homes, residents of coastal areas, students, teachers, mentally- and physically-challenged students, transpersons, and marginalised groups. Here are a few:

A few month ago, 12 residents of Puthenvelikkara panchayat in Ernakulam district made their debut as actors in the play, Chevittorma. The play was a first-hand account of their plight due to frequent tidal flooding. Chevittorma refers to the Christian prayers chanted in the ears of the dying, by relatives and neighbours.

Sreejith Ramanan, head of drama, School of Drama, Thrissur, who directed Chevittorma, says: “I could have had experienced theatre artistes, but I felt that it would be apt to cast the victims as they would just have to enact their experiences. Even though all of them are non-actors, once they understood the concept, they were fully into it. The skeletal framework of a house was used for the scenography and this structure was placed in a temporary water tank built on stage. The actors stood in the water and performed.”

Most of the ‘actors’ work as labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Government Scheme (MGNREGS). They rehearsed for two hours in the evening for 25 days, after finishing their work. Among them are Kochuthresia Jacob, 62, Vilasini Surendran, 61, Latha Dileep, 54, and Shylaja Jayanthan, 53. “We had no clue about what we had to do. But since we had to show what we are going through, we would be in tears as we said the dialogue. Life is miserable out there, with houses that are either abandoned or about to crumble. I myself live in a rented house since we can’t live in my own,” says Latha.

Chevittorma will have more shows in the coming months. The group is set to be registered as a new theatre company, Water Theatre Company. “We might even act in a film!” Latha chuckles.

A first-of-its-kind community theatre workshop for the visually challenged, called 3B Frames, was held in Thiruvananthapuram in May. Organised by APT (A Place for Theatre), Ether India, an NGO, Kerala Federation of the Blind-Youth Forum and Loyola Extension Services, it had 21 participants from across Kerala, who put up two plays at the end of the workshop.

Sam George, artistic director, APT, points out that the initial challenge was arriving at a teaching method. “The participants had to understand the concept of space. Some of them are not even aware of the movements of their own body parts, including a simple action like rotating their hips,” Sam explains.